The NHL's offer is based on a 48-game season starting on either Jan. 12 or 19. / Paul Sancya AP

by Kevin Allen, USA TODAY Sports

by Kevin Allen, USA TODAY Sports

NHL players continued to meet internally into the night Sunday and are expected to deliver a counter-proposal to owners Monday morning as the two sides attempt to ring in the new year by saving a 48-game season.

The NHL Players' Association issued an email to the news media before 5 p.m. ET Sunday saying there would be no face-to-face negotiations in the evening as they continue to work through the 288-page proposal the owners presented last week. The two sides met for a couple of hours Sunday morning to clarify some of the issues in the owners' offer.

No time has been set for Monday's meeting, but the media have been told to expect to hear the schedule after 9 a.m.

With New York City preparing for its annual New Year's Eve countdown, the meeting at NHL headquarters near Times Square could run into problems, particularly if negotiations stretch into the evening.

In their last offer, owners softened some of their positions, such as changing their demand for a five-year individual contract cap length to a six-year cap, with a provision that teams can sign one of their own players to seven years. Owners are also willing to allow one compliance buyout per team with no cap hit, although that money would count against players' share of revenue. Owners also changed their demand of a 5% variance year-to-year on multiyear contracts to a 10% variance.

With players already agreeing to a 50-50 split of the revenue, a major issue on Monday could be the amount of escrow they will have to pay in the second year of the new collective-bargaining agreement when the salary cap would be expected to dip considerably, from the current $70.2 million to $60 million.

Players and agents are saying privately that escrow will be the key issue as the two sides try to find a way to end the 106-day-old lockout.

Commissioner Gary Bettman has said publicly that he can't see playing less than a 48-game season. Included in the owners' offer was a plan to launch a season on Jan. 12 or Jan. 19. The Jan. 12 date is fast slipping away, and the two parties have about 10 or 11 days to get a deal to save the Jan. 19 date.

Meanwhile, players have already voted overwhelmingly to give the NHLPA executive board the right, through Wednesday, to issue a "disclaimer of interest" to dissolve the union. Essentially, it would mean that the NHLPA is no longer representing the players, and they would be free to sue the league under antitrust laws.